Tuesday, February 18, 2014

"What's another five-dozen dead people compared to the love of my life?"

Researchers claim a new study provides some of the most compelling evidence yet for tighter gun controls in the US.
The team followed the consequences of the State of Missouri repealing its permit-to-purchase handgun law in 2007.

The law had required purchasers to be vetted by the local sheriff and to receive a licence before buying a gun.

Reporting soon in the Journal of Urban Health, the
researchers will say that the repeal resulted in an immediate spike in
gun violence and murders.

The study links the abandonment of the background check to an
additional 60 or so murders occurring per year in Missouri between 2008
and 2012.

"Coincident exactly with the policy change, there was an
immediate upward trajectory to the homicide rates in Missouri," said
Prof Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy
and Research.

And undoubtedly, nothing more will be heard of this study again.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]